Former N.J. assemblyman pleads not guilty in massive corruption sting

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-LedgerFormer Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, in this July file photo, plead bit was arraigned today as part of the FBI corruption bust from the summer.TRENTON -- A former assemblyman from Ocean County pleaded not guilty today to charges of taking bribes from the FBI informant at the crux of last summer’s money-laundering and corruption sting.

Daniel M. Van Pelt, a Republican elected to the Legislature in 2007, is charged with accepting $10,000 in exchange for promising to help the informant secure environmental approvals for a real estate project in Ocean Township.

He was among scores of defendants charged in July in the epic sting that hinged on a failed Monmouth County developer who began wearing a wire for federal investigators after being charged in 2006 with bank fraud. The informant, Solomon Dwek, spent more than two years secretly working for federal prosecutors, targeting rabbis who supposedly laundered money and public officials who allegedly took bribes.

Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, and Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt are led into FBI building in Newark

Jersey City Council President Mariano Vega, Jersey City Deputy Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and Jersey City council president Mariano Vega are led into the FBI building in Newark this morning as part of an ongoing corruption probe by the FBI. (Video by Michael Monday/The Star-Ledger)